we reach a hot letlakane and im looking forward to my first site of the pans,,,,this is where we differ and we decide to split as i and ktmer wanted to sleep on the pans,,blazes and splash stay behind and we dont see them again for the rest of the trip, always staying ahead of the 3 hours
but we set off and within 40 kms its dark and we persist with our quest for reaching at least half of the pan,,,we aim for lekubu island which is about halfway,,,lots of sand monster,,,lots of trees and mopanie shrubs slapping you on the shoulders as you corner around them,,,,we dont see anyone and its like riding blindl,,,all the time roads are darting off and we kinda stick to the road most travelled which implies the ones with the most sand as well,,,,sometimes we dart of on different roads only to meet again a km or further,,,its a magic nite,,,,its pitch pitch dark and theres nobody,,,the uncertainty of not always knowing if you going in the right direction and wondering if we didnt over react on splitting up gnaws on your consience all the time while on the outside you are desperately steering away from the sand ruts or at least staying in the bottom of the ruts always dodging and avoid mopanie, thorn and trees slapping you on the side as we round the corners,,,,,not a light,,,nobody in sight,,,its dark dark,,,,
at one stage ktmer and i are riding side by side in the two trail sand road when we overshoots his rut and crashes into mine,,,i managed to avoid him but he goes through that left ,right, left ,right swooping near crashes and eventually does crash into yje road,,,,his leg is pinned by the pannier bars and we managed to pick up the bike,,,his rib is very sore as he suspects he fell on his cellphone in his pocket,,,the next day we see the leg and rib damages only,,,,
anyway we continue,,,sometimes its just grass savanag fields and then its bush country,,,no signs of a pan yet,,,,sometimes we ride through a fine black dust and still we dont see anyone or any signs of we're on the right rode,,,our gps show us that the pans are ahead,,,,we carry on regardless,,,,,we decided already we will sleep on the pans and the hell with all those wild animals and urban legend stories
at one stage we get to a fence and an old man comes with a lantern to open the gate,,,our first veterinary gate and thank goodness they are manned 24 hours,,,the old man reassures us we're on the right road and that we are in fact not to far from lekubu island,,,we sit down in the road and he shows us with drawing in the roads under the bike lights 2 routes,,,one only 7.5 kms away but could be flooded,,,the other option is to ride very very far until we get to the next cattle kraal station where the next veterinary fence awaits us,,,its just a jump to the right and we will ride slapbang into the island,,,easy as falling of a kawa (sorrie hasta)
so fulfilled with hope and dreams yet again we set off for our 7.5 km ride expecting our shortcut ,,,we reach it and same time someone in a bakkie comes from the front and assures us the road is good,,,,its not long and we see in the bike lights the watery short cut and we start riding through the 6 inches high savanah under water,,,later its get deeper and deeper and at some stage the honda is up to its axles in water,,,water water everywhere,,,next thing ahead in the bike lights we see eyes and little heads swimming towards us,,,,,thinking its snakes/alligators??? or legeui9ns we eventually find ourselves surrounded by hundreds of terrapins,,,what a site,,,what a relief,,,i really thought it was snakes,,,ja ja,,,u should have been there,,,anyway we decide to turn around which in itsself is a major effort,,,remember we are in road ruts and to power out doesnt work,,,we literrally have to drag the africa twin and ktm a full 180 degrees and then ride out,,,we are succesfull and we backtrack realising the short cut is unpassable and we start looking for the tracks to the long way to home ???
we find it and i start looking at spots where we can set up camp,,,only looking for trees where we can get firewood,m,,but our gps assure us the camp exists,,,,ktmer suggest we keep goin on and we do,,,,now we start seeing signs of the pans,,,we quickly learn that white pan floors are rideable and that the black ones are wet and we get stuck in them,,,the pans at that stage are a combination of the actual pans, some cross overs of graslands and strips of island covered in trees,,,,after what seemed a eternity we hit the kraal posts and we veer off along the road to our resting place for the nite,,,,again its a mad rush through the ever present mopanie bushes, sweeping and swercing to stay on the road,,,i pick up animals in the veld with the bike head lights,,,the ktm headlight is faint and we end up riding with me behind the ktmer with my full head lights on,,,i eat lots of dust and often miss the road, hitting rocks and sticks at random
and then we're there,,,we ride to the first campsite and ask about if one cant book into a tent or something,,,the send us to the staff camp where we are informed they have no spare tents ,,,,,so we go to the first campsite, pull up lkike gringos next the campfire where 5 families are enjoying a braai,,,we dismount and obviously must be quite a sight to see we ask if we can sleep like dogs around there camp fire tonite,,,everybody welcomes us,,,alll afrikaners and in typically fashion the next thing we have is a tent and a beer in each hand,,,we tell the people our story and one guys is a 1200gs adventure rider and he really "smaaks us stukkend",,,they make us feel at home,,,we dont intrude and we eat our tin of chilly pilchards and brown bread (de wildt special) and we drink it down with zamaleks,,,,what i havent mentioned yet was the following
the mosquito's,,,,,,whatever amount of mosquito you can imagine is t5oo much you should see those pans,,,they are like bees swarming in their thousand around you and the constant whining in your ears are deafining,,,,ive never seen or imagined some mant mossies all over you,,,its appears coils, repellent doesnt help and we pitch our tent and creep in thus avoiding the hungry millions of blood sucking mozzies,,,,once inside the tent we kill what we find inside and smear ourselves with tabbard all over,,,i wear all my clothes and pull a buff over my head to avoid the mozzies,,,we find out the ground is full of those three pronged thorns and seeing we sleeping straight on the ground its unbearable,,,so we pack out our clothes and lie on top of them and by 11 two dogs are snoring,,,more is nogga dag???
pics
in the middle of deepest darkest africa deciding where to now???
brainstorming our next move somewhere in the dark
early morning at our foster camp site,,,ktmer
me and the early morning rise????
